but california has wildfires because 1) people build structures in areas that require wildfires to burn 2) we have fire zone charts for mandated fire insurance that are about as woefully out of date as the flood zone charts 3) climate change makes wildfires more intense

so houston flooding and california burning are pretty analogous

ooh i forgot 4) home prices are such that buying houses in fire zones may be the most affordable housing in the area

this is the same guy who tried to tip off a Chinese official that his phones may have been bugged, got donations from him and went against labor party policy and said Australia should stay out of Chinese affairs in the south china sea

the fact this guy still hasn't been questioned for treason is baffling

“Trump + Jared figure that after...a few days of riots, things go back to normal when it comes to the negotiations.” https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/06/jared-kushner-trump-jerusalem-mideast-peace-283770

> He is banking on the hope that the opposition is just a facade — and that, privately, after a “cooling-off period,” Arab allies will continue to work with him on a peace plan he still expects to announce at some point in the early months of 2018.

.@RichardDiNatale says he believes a by-election is certain in the seat of Batman and that since he cannot prove he isn't a dual citizen, @Feeney4Batman should resign immediately. #auspol MORE: http://bit.ly/2zSLYH7 https://t.co/dbvwpdk1Ra

The Division of Batman is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. The division was created in 1906, replacing the Division of Northern Melbourne. It takes its name from John Batman, one of the founders of the city of Melbourne.
The current Member for Batman, since the 2013 federal election, is David Feeney, a member of the Australian Labor Party.
Batman has historically been the safest Labor seat in the nation, but came narrowly within being lost to the Australian Greens at the 2016 federal election after having been overtaken by them on the primary vote.
The division is located...

Al Franken defenders on Fox News!Gingrich and Ingraham just now: This is “political calculation.” And “weird puritanism.” He’s accused of “minor stuff.” Dems are a “lynch mob.” There’s “no due process.”

Considering I worked in a bitcoin industry through some "crashes" I suspect, especially considering current value, that it won't "crash" to an actual breaking point that actually changes much, all things considered

I mean I don't understand all the bits

but I understand some of the ways it is assigned usefulness to people

so I will be curious what, if anything, actually happens, and if it actually has more of an impact than a news cycle of OMG BITCOIN IS DEAD

because so far, every time, it's never actually dented enough to really do a whole lot

Well, it seems the one thing that apparently has bipartisan support is getting Democrats out of the Senate.

(But yeah, he needs to resign.)

I'm surprised McConnell could find enough spine parts in his skeleton closet to call for Franken to resign though.

@TimStone It has to do with Bitcoin's tech.

Basically, Bitcoin has a size limit and general consensus has decided to not increase said size limit.

> "Unfortunately, it is clear that we have not built sufficient consensus for a clean block size upgrade at this time. Continuing on the current path could divide the community and be a setback to Bitcoin’s growth. This was never the goal of Segwit2x."

And now merchants are dropping Bitcoin because it has essentially decided to not scale.

As of today, Steam will no longer support Bitcoin as a payment method https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1464096684955433613

Lol so we have a news satire in our national radio simply called "Fake News". Best headline I've heard so far: "Putin will be running for president again in 2018. The election results will be made public next week"

@Yuuki Yeah, but he's head of crypto at Cloudflare so I wasn't sure if there was a pending vulnerability or something that he expected to tank the value immediately

"The Los Angeles Police Department asked drivers to avoid navigation apps, which are steering users onto more open routes — in this case, streets in the neighborhoods that are on fire." http://fw.to/EMJxt2E

Just a few years ago, if you told me that Americans would, on average, dislike the current sitting President more than Vladimir Putin, I would've told you... that that's actually somewhat understandable in the vaguest sense.

It's kind of crazy that even among Republicans Trump is more disliked than Putin and within two points of Obama and Clinton, but I suspect that the people who picked Obama and Clinton had to flip a coin so

Before we start riding the "whoo, we're actually dealing with sexual harassment" train, note that Terry Crews came out about being sexually assaulted and by the looks of it, it's being swept under the rug.

I mean, there's been articles about it and his comments were widely shared on Twitter? I'd agree that there's less of a focus on "What will the accused do?" because most people don't have any context for who they are

Context for that Haley comment:

@DLind No, it’s fine. Her longer statement is way less dramatic. Apparently Fox News just keeps asking Trump admin officials if Americans will be safe during the Olympics because of North Korea. Others have said they’ll be fine.

Franken: "There is some irony that I am leaving while a man who bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office, and a man who preyed on young girls runs for Senate with the full support of his party."

@cazc_941 the irony here is that there is a huge right wing backlash against calling things "holiday party" instead of "christmas party" or saying "happy holidays" instead of "merry christmas" because some people feel that using "holiday" is offensive against people who celebrate christmas

Whatever, that sounds dumb. If I want to tell someone merry Christmas, they are being an asshole if they get offended even if they don't celebrate Christmas. Cause I do and I'm giving you a positive interaction

Dear Patreon: In passing processing fees on to me, a patron, my monthly contributions should be going up by about $1. I could live with that. Instead, it's going to go up by nearly $5 (or more, if per creation pledges get individually tagged with the $0.35 fee). That is really shitty, especially since credit card companies and PayPal will only be dinging you once for the dozen or so creators I back.

.@CLewandowski_, when asked if he has any regrets about his behavior towards women: "You know what my regret is? I didn't get to serve my country in the military – that's my regret" http://snpy.tv/2AE7ssJ

Wanted to share a video of Roy Moore in 1997 arguing that kids commit drive-by shooting because they are taught evolution in school: "They're acting like animals because we've taught them they come from animals." https://t.co/YoHZXKfpAl

@Unionhawk Yeah. I mean I've sometimes seen it split in two, monthlies and per post in the email I get from Patreon (i.e. I've gotten two emails for a month), but I don't think I've seen it in the PayPal charge.

@TimStone Except my understanding is that revenue (from their 5%) shouldn't change that much. Patreon was always taking their 5% straight off the top, before the processing fees, and basically handing every creator $0.95, and then clawing back the processing fees.

Big new economic study, on the problem of "Lost Einsteins." Our extreme inequality is almost certainly denying us important innovations. My column: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/03/opinion/lost-einsteins-innovation-inequality.html

❗️NEW VIDEO❗️
Wildfires continue to grow in Southern California. Here is amazing footage of a 'firenado' over the #ThomasFire. Turbulent winds interact with intense heat rising over the wildfire and this interaction creates a whirlwind, very similar to a dust devil. https://t.co/77h7Xo1AFz

I know he means the Hillary Clinton administration because like that's how deranged these people are, but it's funnier to imagine he's talking about investigating things (ambiguous) that occurred 20 years ago

Like what are we investigating friend

That Superpredators(tm) and mandatory minimums were both really bad things and accelerated the growth of the carceral state?

.@SHSanders45: “We think it’s unfortunate that these members of Congress wouldn’t join the President in honoring the incredible sacrifice civil rights leaders made to right the injustices in our history."

"It is unclear exactly why Franks is stepping down, but one Arizona Republican noted there had been rumors of inappropriate behavior" http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/arizonas-trent-franks-expected-resign